Come In, Number Nine, Your Time Is Up…

There’s so much to talk about with these two episodes that I barely know where to begin, so let’s start at the very beginning. After a short recap, it suddenly appears that I’ve sat on the remote and switched to Channel Four. Of course, I’ve done no such thing. Having destroyed one reality TV Show in the ratings, Doctor Who now proceeds to send up the daddy of them all for an encore. It may be somewhat implausible for Big Brother to still be on air in 200100 AD, but frankly, that’s besides the point. The scenes of The Doctor in the Big Brother house are cheeky, very iconic, and superbly written and played by all. In the meantime, Rose’s Weakest Link segment provides some real danger, and Captain Jack is an absolute scream in What Not To Wear.

And to think when Russell first mentioned copyright issues with this episode way back in his first DWM column, I was convinced he was talking about using the daleks. Speaking of which…

They’re back. Sadly, it’s impossible to keep these things secret anymore – the age of Earthshock has long since passed – but for the BBC themselves to spoil the revelation of the daleks by including them in the Boom Town trailer just smacked of desperate ratings-grabbing. But never mind that – what are they actually like?

Thankfully, they’re superficially the same daleks we know and fear from Episode Six, and all the talk of redesigns that filled me with such dread has proved to be unfounded. There are literally hundreds of them onscreen, and they’re unstoppable (indeed, I counted only four dalek casualties before the final showdown). Their new-found religion/madness is intended to give them new depth, but it is really only through the Emperor’s dialogue that it is explored – otherwise the daleks act exactly as daleks should, exterminating everything and everyone in sight (and for my money, it is Lynda-with-a-y who gets the most spectacular exit). Even the TARDIS crew are not exempt from this fate, and after a touching goodbye to The Doctor and Rose, Captain Jack dies with honour, dignity, and most of all, style.

The daleks’ master plan, though, is somewhat flawed. Given that their species is weapons capable of cracking open an entire planet, why don’t they destroy the satellite once The Doctor has shown up? (And whilst I’m nit-picking, how exactly did the Controller acquire a transmat capable of breaching the defences of the TARDIS in flight?)

Nevertheless, the invasion of the satellite gives The Doctor a superb moral dilemma to grapple with at the series’ climax. He’s already hurting having wiped out the Time Lords in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to destroy the daleks – of course he’s not going to do it again. This whole episode is built upon past stories in which The Doctor’s actions have not turned out for the best, so this time he picks the supposedly “cowardly” option instead.

Fortunately for him, Rose’s more simplistic outlook means she is far more willing to commit genocide than The Doctor is. Given slightly-explained new powers from the TARDIS she is able to destroy all the daleks, bring Jack (but no-one else?) back to life, initiate the whole Bad Wolf thing, and get a snog out of The Doctor to boot. However overblown and poorly-explained this sequence may be, there’s no denying that her performance is incredible, with Cate-Blanchett-in-Lord-Of-The-Rings effects to match.

In summary, the whole show is well-structured, well-acted (even by Mickey and Jackie) and beautifully directed, with some superb dialogue. My one complaint with the realisation of this story is the amount of glare applied to the picture – especially when the daleks’ head-bulbs light up. It’s been a minor irritation all series, but it’s really noticeable here. However, such quibbles are unimportant. We’ve been given the flashiest finale to date in a gloriously wild and unpredictable season, in which Chris Eccleston has cemented a truly wonderful portrayal of the Doctor. He will be sorely missed by many.

9/10.

But wait! I can’t finish without adding my two cents about the final scene. Chris’s final words are beautifully written and delivered, and his regeneration is originally executed and very moving. Unfortunately, he appears to have turned into that Casanova chappie, who may have a lot more of The Doctor’s quirkiness than Chris did, but appears at first glance to be too young, comical and generally unimpressive to play the part with the necessary weight and conviction. I predict many comparisons to Sylvester McCoy in the episodes to come. “Time will tell. It usually does.”

My problem with Russell T. Davies’ writing isn’t that he goes too far with sex, satire, and humor – it’s that he doesn’t go far enough. “Bad Wolf / Parting of the Ways” is a good case in point. When I first heard about these episodes, I anticipated that Davies would use Doctor Who as a forum for wry commentary on the reality TV phenomenon. But there is no commentary here; there’s just the skin of a good idea, wasted. The Doctor goes on “Big Brother” … only to break a camera and leave. Captain Jack gets a makeover, Rose plays “The Weakest Link” (surely it would’ve been more exciting if she had to play against the Doctor?), and ultimately it amounts to nothing. It’s not a satire because it’s not reflective in any way; it merely presents these TV programs as they actually are, only with robots. I expected more.

The Daleks, too, are a wasted opportunity. The lone creature in “Dalek” was a truly formidable villain, but here the half-million-strong Dalek army is firmly back in camp mode. I can hardly believe the same Joe Ahearne directed these episodes; the Daleks look so unimpressive here, congregating in their lousy spaceship set and screaming their little heads off. One of them even has dome lights that feebly sputter out-of-tune with its dialogue – it’s amateur hour, just like old times! When the Doctor defies them with his “power” speech about rescuing Rose, he sounds less like a mighty hero, and more like the narrator of next week’s coming attraction.

The excitement picks up in the second part, but only a little. The Doctor’s rescue of Rose is too quick and too convenient, and he embarrasses the Daleks first by blunting their rays with a force field, then by intimidating them with one of his obnoxious new catchphrases, “shut it!” Good grief, the Daleks look wimpy here. The wrinkle that they are religious comes from nowhere and goes nowhere, much like the reality TV concept. I think Davies wanted to take a shot at Bush (the religious “Emperor” of America), but, as with the Slitheen two-parter, he failed to channel his political anger into an interesting story. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if the Daleks are religious or not, since all they do is shout their old clichйs and exterminate extras.

Speaking of exterminations, the battle scenes in “Parting of the Ways” fall extremely flat coming after “Dalek.” We’ve seen all the new Dalek tricks before; in fact, the shots of them dissolving bullets look so familiar, they might as well have used stock footage. Once again we get extras blazing away uselessly with machine guns and refusing to retreat, like any sensible person would do. And, once again, the Daleks are incredibly slow - it’s hard to be scared of something that moves at one-eighth of a mile per hour.

The scenes of Rose with Jackie and Mickey feel like retreads as well. How many times must Jackie shrilly condemn the Doctor? How many times must Rose tell Mickey that her life in the TARDIS is better than anything he could offer her? It’s not great characterization because it never evolves; the same debates are rehashed endlessly. Davies again wastes a potentially good idea. I might care about Rose’s home life, if Jackie and Mickey were depicted as anything but wafer-thin and semi-ludicrous characters without a brain cell to share between them.

I haven’t even touched on the worst aspect of this two-parter – the climax. The Bad Wolf mystery is resolved in an amazingly unsatisfying fashion. In the end, the phrase “Bad Wolf” is meaningless; it’s not a proper clue, since it has no actual connection to Rose, the TARDIS, the Daleks, or Rose’s plan to rescue the Doctor. So, then, it was never a proper mystery. It was just a weak linking device for the season, designed to generate some artificial suspense. The payoff is so feeble that it wasn’t worth it.

Equally unsatisfying is Rose’s sudden elevation to godhood. Faced with a huge dilemma – how can the Doctor beat half a million Daleks? – Davies cops out and simply grants the companion limitless energy from the time vortex. I find it weird and frustrating that the same fans who hate the miracle resolution of the TV Movie, when fairy dust resurrects Chang Lee and Grace, seem perfectly willing to accept Rose as a God From the Machine (literally!) who miraculously saves the day with the aid of shiny special effects.

Then there’s Eccleston. He’s not very good in these episodes. I hate his performance when he’s torn about activating the Delta wave; he overplays the moment horribly and pulls some truly ridiculous “tense” faces. His death scene is not particularly affecting, as Davies just serves up the silly “fantastic” catchphrase instead of writing proper, thoughtful dialogue. It’s a bad end for a bad Doctor.

I'm sorry to say that the new Doctor Who, the new Daleks, and the show’s new writers seem to have used up their bag of tricks already. There’s an overly familiar feel to this finale, like it’s been hastily cobbled together from the rest of the season without proper thought or care (for example – why doesn’t Rose make any reference to the Dalek she befriended earlier?). I truly am disappointed; this is some of the very worst science fiction that I’ve ever seen, really sloppy and cheap and not at all imaginative.

Perhaps I’m just finally tired of Doctor Who. It doesn’t seem to have evolved much, or at least it hasn’t evolved in the right ways, and as I watched this season I kept wondering why I wasn’t tackling some meaty, intellectual Criterion DVDs instead. The new series may be entertaining, and it may be reasonably popular, but it’s not actually good or particularly smart. If you’ll forgive a horrid pun, I think the bloom is already off the Rose.

Now this is more like it.

If you’ve already read my review of the previous episode, Bad Wolf, you’ll know it disappointed me a great deal, after so much hype. It could’ve been so much more, et cetera. So I guess I was dreading its follow-up a little. I’d heard a lot about it, and people seemed to love it… but they’d said the same thing about Bad Wolf. So I was wary.

Okay. I was planning to write about the final episode in my traditional way, from the opening scene to the end, but after a couple of drafts, I realised I couldn’t do that. Not for this episode. This is, for lack of a better word, special. So I’m going for a different approach this time around. Hey, it’s the last one, so why not?

I watched this episode at the end of a one-per-day marathon, from Rose until now. I quickly realised just how different each story was, how different each one felt. No two felt similar to each other. And the ongoing story arc wasn’t the Bad Wolf phenomenon – it was the story of the Doctor and his best friend. Not quite his soulmate. But definitely his best friend. Their first meeting was a whirlwind, involving shop-window dummies, the London Eye, tree-people, metal spiders, gas creatures and Charles Dickens. When Rose eventually got back to her comfort zone, it was a year late… and in the middle of an elaborate alien invasion. When the invaders were defeated, she decided she wanted to come aboard properly… and the Doctor decided he wanted her to.

Their friendship was soon tested when he went a little nuts in Utah, but by the time they got to Satellite Five, one could tell they were having a lot of fun together. Perhaps the audience needed Adam, the companion-who-couldn’t, to come between them, to realise how well they worked together. And look at their rapport in WWII London… once again, they needed someone to come between them, in this case someone who really swept Rose off her feet. But luckily that very same man, Captain Jack Harkness, made a perfect addition to the TARDIS team, as proven on their little Cardiff adventure. Then when each crewmember awoke in a different reality TV show, you could tell they all needed desperately to get back to each other. Not only needed, but wanted to. Because they were friends. And finally, when it seemed Rose had been disintegrated – in front of the Doctor, no less – it was clear that he’d just lost his dearest friend.

Phew! So here we are, and the Doctor’s just discovered Rose is alive after all… only she’s on a Dalek ship. Ah, the Daleks. Yup, they’re back, and they’re mostly digital. But unlike the end of the previous episode, they look fantastic and – most importantly – realistic. The effects team have saved the best for last, with their glorious Dalek ships. But as for the Daleks within the plot… well, I didn’t mind the Daleks discovering religion. Didn’t make me jump for joy, mind you, but it also didn’t make me want to write a nasty letter to the production team. (Unlike those farts, and that pig, and…) I saw it as merely a plot point, in a story that was about far more than that.

The tension in this episode just builds and builds, from the rescue of Rose, to Jack’s gathering of a last defence, to the Doctor tricking Rose and sending her home…. oh! What a scene! Christopher Eccleston has just been incredible in this series – who else could pull off such a defeated look, then immediately mask it with enthusiasm about Rose’s obviously impossible idea about crossing timelines? “He’s tricked her!” I cried out to the screen. My god… I was so involved!

Which brings me to the best part of this episode – the Earth sequence. Imagine looking up at the sky, and knowing a war is taking place somewhere out there, a war that involves your best friend, who’s probably about to die… and you can do absolutely nothing about it. The world just keeps turning, the routine of contemporary life refuses to ever let up. All those little things about your home – your mum, your neighbourhood, your local cafй – once signified your comfort zone, but now they’re more alien than the Moxx of Balhoon. Rose is trapped in a world she no longer belongs to, while the Doctor is about to make a decision that will affect the future of her race. The worlds of 2005 and 200,100 AD have never felt so close together. It’s like they’re happening concurrently… Einstein was right. And to top it all off, there’s a time machine hidden inside a Police Box on her street corner. A living time machine, with a heart. But a heart you can’t break into. This machine is broken to her.

What Rose needs is motivation. She’s got nothing. There’s nothing out there that can help her – except some familiar graffiti. Bad Wolf. A message. A wink from the future. Doesn’t matter who it’s from – it’s proof that she can get back. It’s like in that film Somewhere In Time, when Christopher Reeve discovers his own name in a hotel guestbook from 1912. He was there. So he must be able to get back. So must Rose. All she needed was motivation, see? Oh, and bigger artillery. Like a very big truck with a chain on the end. Hey, that works! Vworp, vworp. And suddenly she’s Super-Rose, full of time-vortex energy, ready to kick Dalek butt.

Now, the resolution. Remember what I said about the “Daleks-finding-religion” plot point being just that, a mere plot point? Well, I feel the same way about the whole Bad Wolf thing. Various people have complained about the deus ex machina resolution to the plot arc. But as I already said, Bad Wolf was not the plot arc. It was just an in-joke. A plot device. And yes, the resolution was a deus ex machina, but what exactly is a deus ex machina? That’s right – a plot device. And just like the Daleks finding God, there were far more important things in this episode than the Bad Wolf thing. I personally enjoyed the whole resolution, anyway. Billie Piper, I’ve finally decided, is wonderful at what she does. I began to well up a little when she described the Doctor as “hers”. I loved the way she nonchalantly wiped out the entire Dalek race with a wave of her arm.

But it’s too much for young Rose, of course. Well, she’s only human! And she’s dying. So the Doctor must save her. With a kiss. A wonderful kiss. I cheered. I really cheered. It just felt right. These two have earned a kiss… especially since the Doctor’s saving her life. (How lovely is that line? “That’s right, I sang a song, and the Daleks ran away.”) But of course, it’s a sacrifice. The Doctor’s now infected. It’s like The Green Mile, isn’t it? But unlike John Coffey, the Doctor can’t just cough out the time vortex. It’s destroying his body. Imagine you’re a casual viewer, and you know nothing about the Doctor Who mythos. “How’s he going to get out of this one?” you wonder. Then, “Is he going to get out of this one?”

Yep. Welcome to the world of Doctor Who. A world that’s only survived for so long because of one thing. Regeneration. This guy can change. And what a regeneration! It’s glorious! A thing of beauty! “You were fantastic,” the Doctor says before he changes. “And you know what? So was I.” But it’s not the Doctor saying this. It’s Christopher Eccleston, the man who saved this show, changed it from a thing of ridicule back to an award-winning Saturday night fixture. And the words were written by that other god, Russell T. Davies. And they’re saying these words to us. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Russell. You were both fantastic.

And welcome, Mr David Tennant. I just saw Casanova. Wow! I can’t wait to see you in this role!

There’s so much more to this episode I haven’t mentioned… the terrific supporting cast, including Jenna Russell and Jo Joyner… the beautiful death of Captain Jack Harkness (we’ll miss you, Mr Barrowman)… Lynda’s chilling death… the brilliant Dalek Emperor, with Nick Briggs giving another outstanding voice-over performance… the James Bond-like caption in the end credits… the return of old-favourite Dalek lines like “My vision is impaired, I cannot see!”… that heart-rending scene between Rose and her mother, when she tells her she’s met her dead father, thanks to the Doctor… but I’m already onto my fourth page, so I’d better shut up now.

So there we are. Laughs, tears, adventure. A beautiful quasi-love story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Great acting, writing, effects, music and direction. And Daleks. Hang on. Am I talking about this episode? Or this entire series? Actually, I’m talking about both. The Parting of the Ways is, for the above reasons, a perfect example of how good this series has been. I’m really going to miss it. Hurry up, Christmas…

"Change, my dear - and it seems just a moment too soon..."

You want to know what 'fever pitch' means? Log onto a Dr Who forum in the week running up to June 18, 2005. In fact scratch that - go into any online chatroom. Hell, even the average pub. Then just mention the magic word 'regeneration', and watch all hell break loose.

This was the state of the nation before Parting of the Ways. The dreadful title didn't make a jot of difference. Thirteen weeks of the BBC's most successful and most talked about drama for a decade; three months of subliminal hints of things to come, and the most exciting cliffhanger/preview sequence ever seen in the series had led to an almost palpable thrill of anticipation. Thanks to a tabloid leak everyone knew Christopher Eccleston was leaving. Thanks to the previous two episodes everyone knew the Daleks were in it. It didn't take much brains to link the two, and the BBC's "Time's running out..." teaser trailer countdown just added to the feeling of inescapability. This was it. Destiny calls. Come in number nine, your time is up.

No episode could ever live up to that level of expectation, but by some miracle Parting does. Just. Even with record-breaking millions at its desposal, the story's budget strains at the seams. Daleks invade Earth! Well, no, actually the Daleks are invading a space station, but we're assured they're busy invading Earth just off-screen, which is a sweet little nod to the zero-money days. The plot creaks a little with the level of explanations required and sheer stuff that has to happen, with an unfortunate slackening of tension at the end, but barrels along with enough pace and death and exterminations that it's very hard to care. The deus ex machina ending won't be to everyone's taste, with the victory (such as it is) perhaps a little too easy, but logical or not it's undeniably cool, which is something you can't say for the Revenge of the Sith. Even the Daleks unaccountably revert to their 70s habit of wobbling when they talk, with the unfortunate side-effect of making them look less like alien tanks and more like wood-and-fiberglass props - but hell, there are a quarter of a million of them, and that frankly makes up for a lot.

And then, of course, there's Bad Wolf. The phrase that had been unaccountably following Rose and the Doctor throughout time, from the mouths of Victorian parlour-maids to the names of Two-Thousandth Century TV channels, even cropping up in the spin-off novels released during the series. Mystery piled upon mystery. Who was Bad Wolf? What was interfering in their adventures? How did the Daleks survive the Time War? Speculation was rife, to the extent that Russell T had to issue a statement the week before to the effect that the mystery hadn't yet been solved, and that neither of the revelations in Bad Wolf were in fact the true answer. Sadly, it must be said that the mystery remains slightly mysterious even after you've heard the explanation, which is frustrating after such a long build-up, even if the revelation itself manages to be wonderfully satisfying. Whether it's due to over-trimmed explanatory dialogue, actual plot holes or just my own stupidity, I'm left with a sense of "No, hang on a minute..." about some aspects of the season arc. But in fairness, spotting plot-holes in season arcs is inexcusably geeky behaviour, and reaction from non-fans (or rather non-hard-core, non-long-term fans, as the whole British population seems to be a fan of the current series) has been universally, almost hyperbolically positive.

And this is odd, because really, objectively speaking, The Parting of the Ways is an only slight above-average episode. However, the sheer pressure of having to carry the weight of the series, and the expectation of the Ninth Doctor's departure, seems somehow to have compressed it into an absolute diamond. That absolute sense of the unstoppable, of the hand of fate looming ever closer, carries over from the audience into the story itself, lending a huge significance to every dramatic beat. Every death - and there are, it should come as no surprise, a lot of those, many of them superbly terrifying - feels like another step towards the inexorable. When the characters onscreen seem to know it too, and act accordingly, the sense of gathering menace is almost overpowering. The Daleks in their thousands are the perfect physical metaphor for this, the addition of a single, designated leader (the design of which is glorious, like a Dalek comic-strip come to life) allowing the rest to blur into endless, faceless, remorseless ranks, conveying an awesome sense of "This is it!". As the defences fail and the intruders close in, you can feel your inner child's reassuringly rhetorical "How will he get out of it this time?!" replaced by a tiny voice going "He won't."

Which brings us, of course, to Christopher Eccleston. Tragic, joyful, loving, brave, equisite: perfect. This isn't his finest performance in the role - becase that's The End of the World, isn't it? Or Dalek? - and nor is it the best script - because that, of course, is Father's Day... unless it's The Empty Child... Or The Unquiet Dead... But let the fans argue about that in the years to come (because that, we can be sure at least, is what fans do). It's irrelevant. It's his last story, his final bow, and he plays it to the hilt. It's a tribute to him that all the eccentricities, all the weird modern flavourings of his performance, now seem so central to the character that it hurts to see him go. This is - to the eyes of the casual viewer, the ones who don't worship at a shrine to Russell T Davies every night - the man who bought back Dr Who. Hell, to anyone under 16 he invented Dr Who. And he's as irrestible in the role now as he was in Rose. His determination, his passion, his bravery and sadness might be taken from Russell T's finely crafted script, but it's in his eyes where they really shine. In Parting, more than anything they seem to say 'this is my last one'. Just as it's been impossible not to laugh at his jokes, to cringe from his anger and to feel the fear in those eyes, so it's impossible, in this one, not to mourn his passing.

But this might be the Ninth Doctor's final episode, and he may, amid the festival of gurning, be giving the sort of performance that has made him a BAFTA certainty over the last thirteen weeks, and that will, I guarantee it, bring a lump to your throat... but this is Rose's show. Despite being sidelined for much of the episode in a subplot that occasionally (though quite deliberately) jars with the main action, she remains the lynchpin of the story, and the emotional core of all that happens. A lesser actress wouldn't just have killed the character, but the entire series. Billie Piper did exactly the opposite, and this is the best we've see her: by turns petulant and vulnerable, tearful and triumphant; in a space-station in the far future or a caff on a damp afternoon, she's simply magnificent. By the narrowest of margins, her finest hour.

It's no surprise, in hindsight, that with Billie and Chris on board, the TARDIS revitalised Saturday night television. In the cooling heat of the season finale, it's looking likely that by teaming her up with David Tennant the BBC may even be able to repeat the trick. As much as, perhaps more than the glory that is Season One, it's the fact that Season Two will happen that stands as Chrisopher Eccleston's greatest tribute. They say always leave them wanting more. And with Parting of the Ways, if that nationwide fever-pitch proved nothing else, he's done just that.

But then, as Russell T would no doubt say, all this critical analysis only gets you further up your own arse. This isn't Shakespeare, it's Doctor Who. Blam! Blam! Exterminate! Zzap! A million Daleks!

Now that's entertainment.

Ok then, no Davros. Fine. I suppose this makes the second (after the infinitely superior Dalek) true Dalek story since Death to the Daleks back in 1974. Not necessarily a bad thing as arguably the continual returning of Davros since his definitive and never quite equalled debut in the outstanding Genesis of the Daleks eventually became a little tedious and overly predictable (though excellently done in the superb Revelation of the Daleks); I often felt it was a mistake to bring him back at all, and this was painfully clear in his first sequal, the shoddily realized Destiny of the Daleks. Anyway, I think I suspected at the end of Bad Wolf, from the next week trailer, that it was either В– as the media seemed to want us to believe В– Davros returning as some sort of evolved version, now practically the Emperor of the Daleks first seen in Evil of the Daleks, or just simply the Dalek Emperor without any implication of Davros having evolved into it (which I think would have been a clever evolution of the character: that it had in fact been an evolved Davros who had been inside the Emperor DalekВ’s casing way back in 1967В’s Evil of the Daleks). Not to be then. Instead we just get the Emperor Dalek with no hint that this is an evolved Davros. What am I wittering on about anyway?

However, the realization of this large squid with swollen cerebrum inside a giant, opened Dalek casing was excellently done and its constant ranting about being В‘the God of the DaleksВ’ and creating В‘perfectionВ’ and В‘heaven on EarthВ’ (in the Dalek sense) was all brilliantly done and a satisfying and intelligent evolution of Dalek mythology into the realms of Kaled eschatology, which has never been depicted quite so powerfully before (apart from DavrosВ’s compelling God-like rantings in Genesis). To have the Daleks chanting В‘blasphemy, blasphemyВ’ in unison was equally compelling and disturbing, particularly as the Daleks are now developing a demonstrably human form of evil in terms of a kind of pugilist, Nazistic religious dogmatism; they are clearly conducting a crusade to destroy all life/societies different from their own В– here I think possibly RTD has for the first time succeeded in some genuine satire by surely using the Daleks as a comment on all forms of religious fundamentalism, both Christian and Muslim, which dangerously dominate the modern world on both sides of the Atlantic (personified by Bin Laden on one side and the less obvious, more insidious Bush-Blair evangelism on the other). If this is what RTD was intending, then he did succeed, and very well В– there you are, I am willing to praise him when I think he deserves it.

Other good aspects of this story: Joe AhearnВ’s typically consummate direction (still not quite Graeme Harper though, more a watered-down Douglas Camfield; what good news HarperВ’s return next year is by the way!) which maximizes all suspense with suitably intense atmosphere, as well as fairly strong takes on any action (though much of the bull and bluster of this story does remind me of Resurrection of the Daleks which, despite a moral shallowness of plot, did I think still have the edge); some intense speeches from Eccleston, powerfully conveyed В– no other Doctor has ever shown such palpable hatred of the Daleks, as epitomized in his initial confrontation with them when he taps into their own dormant fears of him, their nemesis (reminds me slightly of the MasterВ’s hallucinations of the Doctor under the influence of the Keller Machine in Mind of Evil) В– as well as this, Eccleston delivered some bits of genuinely amusing humour with his dismissive comments to the Daleks in his initial confrontation and various other shots, including the one of him grinning inanely while trying to rig up the delta-wave (was it delta-wave? or am I think of the augmenter from Kinda?) mechanism later on; some, I have to concede, superb acting from Billie Piper, especially in the scene in the cafГ© with her mum and the climax when she is possessed by the soul of the Tardis (rather like Galadriel in Lord of the Rings В– much of the incidental music too reminded me of David JacksonВ’s melodramatic take on TolkeinВ’s stories В– especially effective and dramatic is the brilliantly orchestrated choral chanting in the Dalek battle scenes, first used in the classic episode Dalek). The Daleks flying through space was a brilliant image, though otherwise I am not one to be particularly impressed by fleets of CGI spaceships to be honest. By far the most impressive shot of all, which really did work, was when Lynda was tracked down by flying Daleks coming up outside the window of the space station В– that was genuinely menacing. I suppose one has to say this is the best the Daleks have been portrayed since their earliest adventures in the Sixties (though there is still no attempt to duplicate the most impressive Dalek visual effect, only ever used in the black and white stories, of the dilating eyestalks).

Over all though, despite superior special effects, a nice dimension of moral depth, a deepening of the Dalek mythology and some truly intense acting, this story still to my mind falls far short of the dramatic excellence of, say, Revelation of the Daleks; the climax of Parting of the Ways is not on a par with the compellingly directed climax to Graeme HarperВ’s Season 22 finale (and remember the flying Davros in that story? not only has everyone forgotten that the Daleks first flew in Remembrance, but theyВ’ve also forgotten that even before that, Davros was doing it three seasons before!!! В– although the effect was mucked up admittedly). Another similarity to Revelation though was having a robot of Anne Robinson (uncomfortably though almost forgivably bringing the contemporary into the show) shooting at Daleks, which reminded me of the all-too-Earth 20thc. style DJ shooting at Daleks with his ultra-sound laser (we cringed at that at the time I recall, but looking back it sort of works in an oddball way).

Essentially, despite a brilliantly realized and scripted Emperor Dalek and some intense moments of verbal exchange, Parting of the Ways still felt to me to be a George Lucas take on Doctor Who, with its rather over-bearing special effects, gung-ho Han Solo character in Captain Jack, protracted action/battle scenes (though some of these were really well shot admittedly В– thereВ’s something about machine guns and Daleks which sort of works) and general reliance on visual spectacle to compensate for fairly good but patchy drama. ItВ’s bull and bluster Who fundamentally, along the lines of Resurrection, which isnВ’t an entirely good or bad thing, and is significantly inferior to ShearmanВ’s Dalek because that balanced action scenes with truly compelling drama and dialogue (especially EcclestonВ’s confrontation with the enslaved Dalek В– a true classic even by the old seriesВ’ standards). Ironically though in Parting the Doctor is in some ways more Doctorish than in Dalek as this time he messes around with the gadgetry, doing the brainwork while Jack dons the heavy armour and Ridley Scott guns (for this reason alone itВ’s a shame Jack hadnВ’t been introduced prior to Dalek). One of the really puzzling things about Parting however is the DaleksВ’ seeming phobia with actually firing at the Doctor: he seems to casually elude them a couple of times when directly in their firing range and they donВ’t seem to attempt, at least not very successfully, to exterminate it as he just walks away from them! Ironic that while these are arguably the best realized and deadliest Daleks ever, theyВ’re not very good at posing a threat to their real enemy. But then, the Emperor does say at one point he wants the Doctor to become like him, so maybe the Daleks are under orders not to kill him.

A nice touch at the end was the Doctor noticing something different about his hand at the console, and his little speech to Rose hinting at an imminent regeneration В– this was very well scripted. The regeneration itself I found rather disappointing and not nearly as satisfying as the old seriesВ’ ones, especially the most memorable of all, Davison into Baker at the end of Caves of Androzani (indeed, the McCoy to McGann was ironically one of the best ever regenerations В–as was the original Hartnell to Troughton of course). What we do get though is a slight alteration, with the first ever vertical regeneration, and I couldnВ’t help that old excitement come back watching the Doctor regenerate into a new actor, though in EcclestonВ’s leather jacket, and with a detectable quiff, Tennant did resemble more a Jarvis Cocker-esque Britpop frontman than a Timelord. Nevertheless, his first speech, mentioning his teeth, was amusingly delivered from Tenant, whose elfin, mischievous demeanour and В– at risk of sounding snobby, but not intentionally В– more received pronunciation delivery does I feel bode pretty well for his incarnation. The showВ’s always worked on contrast between Doctors and I think weВ’re going to get it, and more in the vein of previous Doctors, I hope anyway. Yes I did feel a tinge of sadness at EcclestonВ’s rather wistful departure I suppose, but IВ’m afraid over all I found his interpretation disappointingly unsuited to the role, not simply because of his over-emphasized blokey Salford accent and intonations, or necessarily his battered leather jacket, v-neck t-shirt and crew cut, but more because of his lack of eccentricity, occasionally sloppy scripting and far-too-human vernacular, and often misdirected grinning. Sadly Eccleston didnВ’t have it for me, despite being one of my favourite actors, which makes it all the more disappointing. However, he would not have been one of my own choices for the part В– Tennant is certainly more suitable but I would have gone for Rhys Ifans myself.

LetВ’s just hope next season isnВ’t mucked up by more commerciality, thinness of plots, contemporaneous intrusions, tedious Tyler family soap opera, farting aliens, inappropriate and clumsy sexual innuendos and snogging among the Tardis crew. ThatВ’s another thing В– what was all this kissing about? Jack kissing the Doctor was stupid and ridiculous; the Doctor kissing Rose was an unwelcome echo of the McGann film (and reminiscent of Avon in BlakeВ’s 7В’s Sarcophagus) but ultimately forgiveable, I suppose. LetВ’s get back to emphasizing the solitary alienness and eccentricity of the Doctor, now we are given a fresh chance to reinterpret the role with a new actor.

The Doctor Who season finale. Sounds strange to hear that, doesn’t it? It says something about the new format of the show and how much television has changed since Doctor Who’s hey day. In the eighties Doctor Who was climaxing seasons with Time-Flight, The Kings Demons and The Twin Dilemma and they were hardly examples of the show going out in a blaze of glory. These days we have season arcs, shorter episodes that are interlinked and if dealt with properly all those links converge in the final episode that makes the whole experience take on a greater meaning and hopefully more rewarding. I think I can confidently say that Doctor can join the ranks of Buffy and DS9 (in my humble opinion) as those shows that know how to structure their seasons and offer the viewer considerable pay off for sticking around.

I’m probably in the minority here but I found these mad, religious Daleks far more interesting than the lone survivor we met earlier in the season. As I have already explained I feel Rob Shearman attempted to humanise the Daleks in a very Star Trekky type way which I felt diminished their effect but here Russell T Davies proves that you don’t have to humanise Daleks to humanise them. When we are told that the human race has been ‘filleted, pulped, sifted’ to create a whole new race of Daleks we get a picture of how grotesque their attempts to survive can get that rivals Stengos’ emaciated state in Revelation of the Daleks. These are Daleks that are made out of the genetically altered remains of human beings, beings who the Daleks loathe. Thus their creed of disliking the unlike extends to themselves, they literally hate themselves. How frightening is that? How far would a creature go that despises its own existence? When they launch an attack on Earth these insane, self-loathing creatures are merely reclaiming their home. They will swoop down from the skies and exterminate the human race but all they are really doing is killing themselves, extinguishing that reminder of who they once were and what they loathe about themselves. It’s a fascinating new take on the creatures and gives the war machines some real depth without going to extreme lengths to alter their personalities or mission statement (big, nasty EVIL). When the Doctor shouts at these creatures, they retreat and their eye stalks quiver, just small touches like this add so much to their effect.

It helps that the budget extends to finally revealing a huge fleet of Daleks and in several Star Wars-esque sequences we are confronted with just how powerful the Dalek force is. When they swarm the Gamestation/Satellite Five we are treated to a room filled with Daleks, slowly gliding forwards and picking off everybody in their path. They are an unstoppable force of dread and have rarely been this terrifying. The futility of opposing them is brilliantly exploited, that poor bird who joins Jack’s tiny army only to be confronted with an evil she can’t fight learns this the hard way. The mass slaughter is mostly kept off screen, which (like The Greatest Show in the Galaxy) is far more effective that way. Linda’s shocked reaction to all the screaming and death over the intercom is far more frightening than watching these people die.

What makes this epic confrontation between the Doctor and the Daleks work is Russell T Davies excellent grasp of character and he adds lots of little moments to the episode which makes this story about people rather than ciphers, without holding up the plot one second. I loved the quick scene between Davish and the Asian chick (proto-Anji!), they don’t get much screen time but there is a history implied and a future too. The inclusion of Roderick is nice, so at least we have one character that we really want to be killed. Similarly Rose’s quiet reactions to Linda’s (with an I) enthusiasm speaks volumes without saying a single word. Simon took an instant dislike to Linda but I thought she was lovely; sweet and loyal…and she was served with the best death of the entire episode (just when you think you know how she is going to die…). It was a little unfair (because she was so nice…) but if you’re going to go…that is how to do it!

The best ‘small’ moment is between Rose and her mother when she admits she met her Dad. It is another reminder of the ground we have covered in series one and unexpectedly reminds us of the potent emotions brewed up in Father’s Day. Jackie’s horrified reaction sees her mind opening up to the possibility of time travel and understand why Rose would want to travel with the Doctor. This is incredible pay off and it isn’t even the main plot. Or the secondary plot. Just a moment.

I am fairly certain there will be people up in arms about the fact that Jack gives the Doctor a snog before he walks off to his death. Please God somebody think of the children! It is fascinating how this episode looks at how people will give their lives for the Doctor; Jack, Rose and Linda all blindly offer their lives in the heat of his battle. In my eyes Jack earns that kiss and a chance to return in series two because he knows he is walking to his death and he doesn’t hesitate, he knows he will be fighting an unstoppable force and sacrificing his life to give the Doctor a few more seconds to defeat the enemy. He smiles, tells Rose she is worth fighting for, tells the Doctor he was better off as a coward and walks to his death. Anyone who was unsure about Jack must surely be on side now; he is one of the most selfless characters we have ever had in the show and one of the most open. I love him.

But this story is really about the Doctor and Rose and their turbulent relationship. The Doctor knows the shit has well and truly hit the fan and in a well played scene (for a while tricking the audience as well as Rose) he fools her into retreating in the TARDIS and has preset the controls to take her home. Rose’s desperate reaction, screaming at the console to take her back, is heartbreaking to watch.

It is vital that we return to Jackie back on Earth and not just because the Doctor keeps his promise to keep her daughter safe. In a beautifully played scene (and Billie Pipers best moment in the entire series) Rose breaks down in front of her mum and boyfriend and tries to explain how the Doctor changed her life. It is a brilliantly deceptive scene which seems to be suggesting that life on modern day Earth is dreadfully dull compared to travelling amongst the stars (the mundane setting and in particular the horrid shot of the rotating chickens puts across the sheer horror of a normal life) but as it continues the scene opens up and has much more meaning. It is about fighting oppression, making a stand and saying no when something unjust is happening…Rose even says it isn’t about aliens and travelling, it is about how you live your life that matters. There are plenty of horrors we ignore in favour of going home and eating chips. Poverty, world wars, fights in the street that we walk past with a shrug, deaths that we hear about on the telly which we go “oh dear” but feel glad it didn’t happen anywhere near us…RTD is making a bold statement here but it is one worth listening to. It is a way of using science-fiction to extend to its audience a message that we should pay attention to. “THAT FIGHT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!” Rose screams but is she talking about the Daleks?

Whilst I am pleased that Jackie is back I was surprised to see Mickey in action again. Boomtown seemed to have tidied up his little arc very nicely, with him walking away from Rose and giving her the life she deserved and this seemed a little like going over the same ground. Chats with my pal Mike Morris have seen us arguing over the merits (or not) of the Mickey’s contributions to Boomtown) and whilst he points to the moment in The Parting of the Ways where Mickey decides to help Rose after she tells him she has nothing to stay for on Earth and suggest this is Mickey’s top moment I would say he has already had that moment in Boomtown and bringing it up again is the only example of RTD whacking us over the head with a shovel to make sure we got the point. Mickey is selfless too. I get it. Let’s move on.

I have heard many, many people suggest that the ninth Doctor is the most ineffectual of the bunch because he has been so redundant in many of the episodes solutions. Whilst I can hardly deny that he has not been lacking in the climatic resolution department, The Parting of the Ways goes some way towards explaining why the ninth Doctor prefers to manipulate others into getting involved and make the tough choices. The Time War was clearly a devastating conflict and the series hasn’t shied away from the fact that the Doctor caused the destruction of both The Time Lords and the Dalek fleet (“I MADE IT HAPPEN!”). It brings is back to Boomtown (that episode has actually set up far more for this one than people give credit; the extrapolator, the heart of the TARDIS, the consequences issues) which dealt with the Doctor dealing with the consequences of his actions. The entire first series has been building up to the scene where the Doctor is surrounded by Daleks and has the decision to wipe them out (and Earth with it) or let them survive. Can he live with himself if he kills so many people to stop the Daleks? Does it make him a coward if he says no? I don’t think the ninth Doctor is ineffectual as much as he is scared. He has had a huge reminder of what his conflicts can lead to and is more reluctant these days to make those huge choices. It is what made his horrified reaction in Bad Wolf at the state of the Earth so effective.

BAD WOLF is finally explained and I liked what I saw. I was only annoyed by the fact that Simon guessed what it was perfectly by Bad Wolf and spent the rest of the evening boasting his intellectual powers. The bastard. Still I was concerned that RTD would shrug us off with a lousy explanation but this makes perfect sense and makes the exercise well worth trying, it has gotten the conspiracy nuts in tizzy over the past thirteen weeks and has certainly kept me intrigued. Good stuff.

I once questioned whether it was possible for the Doctor to love any of his companions. At first I struggled with the idea, primarily because of all the icky sex stuff that gets in the way but then I started thinking about love and its complexities and decided that yes, considering he has been willing to lay down his life for the lives of his companions he certainly could be said be in love with them. The ninth Doctor is in love with Rose, which is made abundantly clear in this episode. Not only does he push her away whilst he has to deal with the Daleks (knowing it is too dangerous for her) but he also takes the huge decision to save her life at the climax and take his own. And how else would you express this moment of love but to seal it with a kiss? It is dazzling television because it appeals to our emotions and our senses (it being a beautifully filmed scene too) at the same time. Simon and I were left in tears, hugging each other. This is amazingly sensual TV of the sort that Doctor Who has never really explored before.

I shant say too much about the last scene except for the fact that it was astonishgly quiet for those of us who were expecting the ninth Doctor to go out in a blaze of glory but reminds us this series is as much about the Doctor and Rose as it is about adventures in time and space. I loved how he warned her (protecting her to the end) and the final few lines strongly suggest season two will be even better.

Never mind series two, The Parting of the Ways was a triumphant season finale, one that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout and with Bad Wolf created a bona fide Doctor Who classic to go in the history books. The last thing I have to say is about Murray Gold whose underrated music has been vital to this series success and was at an all time high here. Dramatic, emotional, exciting and touching…it was the finishing touch to a brilliant finale.